Five days from the first bell of the Jan. 30 event, “Strikeforce: Miami,” the promotion has taken extra steps to ensure a welterweight clash between Jay Hieron (18-4 MMA, 1-0 SF) and Joe Riggs (32-10 MMA, 3-2 SF) can be widely seen.

EA Sports, the software developer of video game “EA Sports MMA” and a strategic partner of the San Jose, Calif.–based Strikeforce promotion, announced today via Twitter that it will stream the preliminary card fight live on EASportsMMA.com. The stream begins at 9 p.m. ET and will be the sole undercard fight broadcast on the web.

Showtime’s live broadcast of “Strikeforce: Miami” begins one hour later at 10 p.m. ET.

“It was a discussion that came up between Strikeforce, Showtime and EA Sports during planning meetings,” Randy Chase, Product Marketing Manager for EA Sports, said in a Monday email to MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “All parties had seen the MMA community interest in the fight and wanted to give the fans what they wanted to see. We are committed to growing the sport and supporting the fighters in our game, so we were happy to play a part in bringing this fight to the fans.

“We also really wanted to see the fight ourselves.”

Many fans scoffed when the Hieron vs. Riggs was bumped from the main card, presumably to make room for Herschel Walker vs. Greg Nagy and Bobby Lashley vs. Wes Sims.

Walker, of course, is a Heisman Trophy winning former NFL running back, and Lashley is a former WWE and current TNA wrestling star.

Hieron had been slated to take on Nick Diaz for the vacant Strikeforce welterweight title on the main card of “Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg” this past August. But after Diaz was scratched from the card due to a missed drug test, the former IFL welterweight champion went back on the shelf.

Diaz took a fight Hieron turned down for the Jan. 30 event and will face DREAM welterweight champion Marius Zaromskis for Strikeforce’s vacant 170-pound belt.

A total of 26 fighters got their chance to shine on Saturday as part of UFC 190 at Rio de Janeiro’s HSBC Arena. Now that UFC 190 is in the books, it’s time to commence MMAjunkie’s “Three Stars” ceremony.

The man known for cranking submissions to the point of injury added eye-gouging to his repertoire. But is the controversy of Rousimar Palhares too essential to his bizarre, awful appeal for his employers to take any meaningful action against him?